With the increasing down-scaling of semiconductor devices, various processing techniques (e.g., photolithography) are adapted to allow for the manufacture of devices with increasingly smaller dimensions. For example, as the density of gates increases, the manufacturing processes of various features in the device (e.g., overlying interconnect features) are adapted to be compatible with the down-scaling of device features as a whole. Oxygen plasma etching (or ashing) can be used for removal of resist materials used in a photolithography process, however, such processes may undesirably erode underlying structures.